Long-clawed alien
]] Long-clawed aliens are a type of extraterrestrial that are characteristically instinctive and ferocious. (The X-Files Movie, TXF: "The Beginning") Physical Appearance & Biological Processes Each of these aliens have two upper limbs that both have three fingers, each ending in a claw that can be extended at will, and two lower limbs, both with three toes. The creatures stand upright on their legs. Each alien also has gray, scaly skin, large black eyes and their bodies contain the black oil virus. (The X-Files Movie) Each of these aliens are incubated inside the torso of a human infected with the black oil virus and the development of this form of alien is brought on by heat. During its gestation inside a human, the alien uses the life energy of its host, digesting bone and tissue. It can be destroyed, during this period, by burning. After gestating, the aliens react to pain and can be killed by multiple stabbings, such as from a bone weapon. (The X-Files Movie) Each of these vicious, long-clawed spacelings are in a state of continual development and, unless it is killed, the creature will ultimately shed its skin to become a Grey alien. (TXF: "The Beginning") History Prehistoric Presence In 35,000 B.C., two primitives followed three-toed tracks made by a long-clawed alien through the frozen wasteland that was North Texas and into a cave that contained the deceased body of another primitive man, encased in ice. The alien attacked and killed one of the primitive men, but the remaining man sought revenge by stabbing the alien to death. The alien's internal black oil seeped out of the creature's body, however, and painfully infected the surviving primitive. Subject of Failed Observation In 1998, another long-clawed alien developed inside the torso of one of three firefighters who were infected with the black oil virus, after attempting to rescue a boy named Stevie who fell into the same cave in Texas which was, by now, in a much hotter environment. The boy and the three other firemen were destroyed by Syndicate scientists unfamiliar with the alien's gestational development, such as Doctor Bronschweig, as the Syndicate had been entirely unaware of this stage in the aliens' development until this incident - they only had knowledge of the black oil and the Grey aliens. The developing organism inside the remaining firefighter was contained in the cave, where the scientists artificially lowered the temperature to slow the alien's development. As a result of the firefighter having initially been infected in an environment which had raised his basic body temperature above ninety eight point six degrees, Dr. Bronschweig realized the man would never recover, even though he was still technically and biologically alive. The scientists attempted to keep the man alive long enough to use his body in their tests of a vaccine for the black oil virus but, before they could do so, the alien erupted out of its host's torso while unobserved in the cave. Dr. Bronschweig was alarmed to find the remains of the firefighter's body and to discover, moments later, the alien that had gestated from it. The creature calmly watched Dr. Bronschweig from the shadows as he observed it, before the alien ferociously attacked the doctor. It injured him, but ceased its assault, screaming in pain, when Dr. Bronschweig injected it with the vaccine. After the other scientists began to seal and cover up the cave's opening despite the doctor's calls for help, the alien resumed its violent attack on Bronschweig. Syndicate Discovery The Syndicate held a meeting in London shortly after, attended by Conrad Strughold, the Cigarette Smoking Man, the First Elder, the Well-Manicured Man and others. At this meeting, the Well-Manicured Man, the last attendee to arrive, was disturbed to learn about the newly discovered stage in the aliens' development. Strughold admitted that this news forced the group to reevaluate their role in the aliens' plans for recolonization of the Earth and the Well-Manicured Man remarked that the discovery revealed that the extraterrestrials had been "using us, all along," as the Syndicate had apparently been "laboring under a lie." Despite the Well-Manicured Man's outrage, the Syndicate planned to continue cooperating with the aliens and determine whether the recent mutation of the black oil virus was an isolated case by relaying their discovery to the aliens, handing over a body that was infected with the gestating organism. Soon thereafter, the Well-Manicured Man revealed several secret details concerning the Syndicate's Project to FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, including the group's recent shock discovery. The Well-Manicured Man was killed for providing Agent Mulder with the information, however. Aboard UFO in Antarctica in Antarctica.]] Many humans infected with the black oil were encased in ice within a buried alien craft in Wilkes Land, Antarctica and, when Mulder introduced the vaccine into the craft's systems as an attempt to save his FBI partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, who was one of the humans in stasis, the craft began to come alive with activity, causing many long-clawed aliens to gestate from the humans aboard. These vicious aliens broke out of the ice surrounding their human hosts and at least some, if not all, tried to pursue Mulder as well as Scully but the agents managed to escape before the aliens could reach them. The UFO carrying the long-clawed aliens launched from its buried location. (The X-Files Movie) Background Information Script & Forgotten Concepts The script of The X-Files Movie describes the prehistoric alien in the first scene of the film as having "dinosaur-like skin" and, in the audio commentary included as part of the movie's DVD, writer Chris Carter indefinitely refers to the alien in this sequence as an "alien dinosaur". It can be determined from the script that, as originally conceived by Chris Carter, the alien's presence inside the fireman was to have first been seen "through his tissue and the bones in his skull". Even though the alien at this point was merely to have been seen as "something living inside him", the end of the same scene reads: :"There is more movement within his body. Within his chest and neck, as if the creature gestating inside is continuing to stretch and grow. So that now we can see one of its black eyes staring from through the clear flesh of the fireman. An eye which blinks at us." On the DVD audio commentary, director Rob Bowman reveals that, when the aliens break out of the cryopods during the film's climax, the idea was basically that they are attempting to escape their total demise due to the vaccine. In the final version of the film, it is never established that the vaccine can be lethal to the long-clawed aliens, only that it may cause them pain. Movie Production In the final version of the movie, Tom Woodruff, Jr. and Gregory B. Ballora were credited for playing two long-clawed aliens in the film - as Creature #1 and Creature #2 respectively. Although not specified in the film's script, the appearances of this form of alien, in the movie's final version, are virtually always shown as a series of very short, flashed cuts. In the DVD audio commentary, director Rob Bowman explains that this was due to the fact that the actor playing the alien was "completely blind" while wearing the elaborate creature costume. The director reveals that he was forced to adjust his entire approach to filming in this very abstract way - in order to create the illusion that the alien was "quite dangerous and lethal" - when he first saw actor Tommy Woodruff walk onto the set wearing the costume, like "a blind man walking down a sidewalk." Bowman also recalls that this lack of sight, as well as the fact that the actor had sharp talons at the end of his fingers, proved challenging when filming the fight sequence between the alien and one of the primitives, in the first scene of the film. The director's comments reveal that Tommy Woodruff played both the creature in this sequence and an alien that is seen chasing Scully and Mulder out of the UFO near the end of the film. Additionally, the director refers to the aliens in the sequence where they break out of the cryopods during the film's climax as really being merely men in rubber suits. However, he also states that at least one of these aliens was essentially a head on a stick, with a trigger to make the creature's eyes blink and its mouth open, being operated by puppeteers while another puppeteer was wrapped around the alien, with its hands pounding on the interior surface of the cryopod. The puppeteers were then doused with water, while accomplishing the virtually impossible task of literally working within the confines of the pod, and would bust the creature's head through the pod. According to Rob Bowman, the chase sequence, in which Scully and Mulder escape from the UFO, was originally filmed with more emphasis on the alien pursuing them, but the film's production crew realized that the sequence showed too much of the alien and that showing less of the creature, leaving more to the viewer's imagination, was scarier. Return The long-clawed alien in "The Beginning", set directly after the movie, was an example of one of a few elements in that Season 6 premiere that were incorporated into the episode due to the writers' intentions to bring a conclusion to some of the series' important story elements. Most of the episode's sequences featuring the alien inside the power plant had to be reshot, sometimes two or three times, because of persistent problems with the nuclear core sets and/or the skin-molting creature. Consequently, the requisite scenes were not finished until only days before the episode's air date, almost two months after filming of the episode had otherwise stopped. (The End And The Beginning) Appearances *TXF: **''The X-Files Movie'' **"The Beginning" (Season 6) Category:Aliens